De La Soul

Posted by Jenny Good on June 21, 2010 11:49 AM

"If you've never been shot or stabbed Toronto go Oooh Oooh Oooh Oooh..." De La Soul from Long Island New York blew up Dundas Square in Toronto for the final night of NXNE. As their name suggests, they brought soul to Hip-Hop like other conscious artists of their time: Mos Def, Common and Q-Tip who collaborated on De La's 'Saturdays' which they played tonight. These guys have collaborated with everyone from Gorillaz to Nike and they've been runnin the beats since '87, when Airforce Ones were cool the first time.

"Plugs" 1 through 3: Posdnuos, Trugoy, Maseo comprise the bangin trio of De La Soul. They packed the Square and had it boppin one hand in the air the whole time. They played all their hits with plenty of shout outs and jokes to Toronto, as playfulness and humour has always been a part of their bright and colourful style of hip-hop. The most anticipated and celebrated song of the night was definitely their classic 'Me Myself and I!'

Kid Sister opened for De La Soul, with some produced synthesized beats of her own. It was an interesting choice as they represent 2 contradicting sides of the industry, Kid Sister being more commercial and trend-chasing than the roots based De La Soul. The last mention of the night and the festival goes to surprise find 10 Bears from Manchester, UK who we happened upon by chance at the Elmo. Worth checking out, as seems to often be the case with music from Manchester. They are an extremely tight electro rock bank with catchy, bouncy beats and great rhythm!